Discuss the role of the courage of children in both Little Woman and Essay

Discuss the role of the courage of children in both Little Woman and Treasure Island - Essay Example â€Å"Treasure Island reflects a deep anxiety about the power imbalance that complicates the adult author-child reader relationship†¦ Stevenson worries that the authors of adventure stories aim to indoctrinate and exploit youngsters like his impressionable boy hero† (Gubar, 2009, pp126-127). Furthermore, both Treasure Island and Little Women were written in the 19th century, which has been labelled the â€Å"Golden Age† of children literature (Gubar, 2009). In considering the novels in their historical context, Gubar’s observation underlines the changing approach of authors to children’s literature towards the end of the nineteenth century in portraying childhood and growing up. A central element of this is through the subversion of societal norms associated with children with the use of strength. For example, in Treasure Island, the novel’s central protagonist Jim Hawkins relays the journey of pirates and hidden treasure and the narrative is rich with action of childhood adventure, which is infused with adult themes such as morality, alcoholism and murder (Jones, 2003). Moreover, it is submitted that Jim’s character arguably fuses the universal quest for adventure conventionally associated with childhood with serious issues impacting child development, development in growing up. This is exemplified by the characterisation of Jim as a boy man in taking the Hispaniola to get the buried treasure: â€Å"the scheme had an air of adventure that inspired me, and the thought of the water breaker beside the fore companion doubled my growing courage† (Stevenson, 1883, p.196). Similarly, Alcott’s â€Å"Little Women† also subverts the contextual norms associated with children growing up, which is arguably attributable to Alcott’s difficult childhood (Clark 2005, p.213). Indeed, Alcott utilises the familiarity of domesticity associated with girls and subverts this to underline the complex issues impacting children’s lives, which was contextually